This morning, I’d like to share a free hand embroidery pattern from a series of old designs that I’m cleaning up and altering a little bit so that they’re suitable for hand stitching on smaller projects.

This particular medallion features a cross shape, tipped with fleurs-de-lis, with stylized floral elements between the four arms.

I really like this design! It’s not quite what the original design looked like and it’s definitely a little more symmetrical. The original was hand drawn and a bit wonky. The tips of the fleurs-de-lis didn’t line up with the center, and the “north” and “west” arms were longer than the “east” and “south” arms on the design.

This is one reason why I take the time to clean up old patterns from folios that feature designs that were originally hand drawn and then printed. They weren’t always symmetrical, and while you might not notice it at first glance when looking at the drawing, once the stitching fills in, it becomes more apparent. And by then, it’s often too late to make corrections.

This design would make a great stand-alone, personal embroidery project, in various embroidery techniques. I picture it in the browns, pinks, and greens typical of the Arts & Crafts era church embroidery, and accented with goldwork.

Oh yes! Some luscious Au Ver a Soie silk worked up in long and short stitch shading (delicious! there’s nothing more glorious than needlepainting worked in silk!) and the outlines worked in different types of goldwork threads, and then further outlined by just a tiny strand of Soie 100/3 or something similar, to make the whole design pop!

(Needless to say, I’ve been thinking about this one for a while.)

The design could also be used for its original intended purpose in ecclesiastical embroidery, as decoration on vestments, an altar frontal, a banner, or the like.

And finally, the design would work well in other crafts, too – paper crafts, painting, wood carving…

PDF Printable

Here’s the handy-dandy PDF printable for you. The design prints at 6″ in both directions if you choose “no scaling” in your printer setting. You can enlarge or reduce as you wish, of course.

Free hand embroidery pattern: Floral Cross Medallion (PDF)

As soon as I finish a few projects that are particularly pressing, I’m actually going to stitch some of the designs that you’ll find on my patterns page here on Needle ‘n Thread.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for more crosses for Easter embroidery, you can find several church embroidery patterns here that feature crosses, too.